Painting our Deck Using Behr Stain

When we purchased our home, it had a hot tub with a red wood deck built around it. The hot tub looked like it was straight from the 70’s and the previous owners, who had owned the home 11 years before us, said they had never opened it! We of course were curious and opened it, old water and roaches were rightfully what we discovered. After scrubbing it clean and trying to fill it with water, we realized there was no hope for this old hot tub so we had to remove the hot tub.

There was no way it was going to fit on a trailer with its huge bulky shape so we cut it into pieces with a chainsaw and rented a trailer and took it to the landfill. That was a sight to see. I helped with the loading but stood clear of Cody and his uncle chainsawing that big hot tub.

Once the hot tub was gone, there was a large hole in the middle of our deck. We debated getting rid of the deck altogether and putting sod down, but I decided to fill the hole and make this an outdoor dining area. It is always shaded thanks to the big pecan tree it sits under and would make the perfect place for gathering. We added support posts and screwed down new boards (after buying the wrong thickness twice lol) and we had ourselves a new deck. The problem was half of it was red and half of it was raw wood. We both weren’t fans of the red wood so I researched what I could do to not only cover the red stain completely but match the raw boards once painted too. In addition, I wanted something that would last on our dock so I could have both pieces match.

Quite a few bloggers recommended to check out the Behr solid color waterproofing stain and sealer. I picked up a brochure with the color swatches from Home Depot and decided on drift gray.

To prep for painting, we started by sweeping the leaves and dirt off the deck and then power washed it and allowed it to dry completely. I used a putty knife to did pecan shells, etc. out of the cracks between the boards then swept it again. We used a paint sprayer to apply the stain and were very happy how well it covered with only one coat. We went back and did a second coat to get rid of bare spots and to retouch angles on the cracks between boards but were very happy with the outcome. We are allowing it to dry a few days before we place furniture back on top on it and although it does feel dry to the touch.